Limited write endurance is one of the
factors that detractors bring up with regards to solid state drives
(SSDs). Most NAND
flash chips using multi-level cell (MLC)technology in SSDs have a
write endurance of around 10,000 cycles. That isn't as great a
problem in SSDs greater than 120GB that use wear-leveling technology,
but smaller sized SSDs have less capacity and will reach the upper
limit much quicker.

That issue is why almost all SSDs aimed at
the corporate and enterprise market use Single Level Cell flash
chips, which typically have a write endurance around the 100,000
cycle mark. These include Intel's X25-E, OCZ's Vertex EX and Agility
EX series, and Super
Talent's MasterDrive RX series.

Micron Technology is one
of the key partners in IM Flash Tech along with Intel Corporation.
IMFT produces the 34nm NAND flash used in Intel's
second generation X25-M SSDs using 2-bit-per-cell MLC chips.
Micron and IMFT have been working on improving the write endurance of
their NAND chips, and they have now reached a breakthrough.

“By
leveraging our mature 34nm NAND process, Micron has developed
Enterprise NAND products that support customers’ high-endurance
requirements. These products ensure that enterprise organizations
have a highly reliable NAND flash solution – be it MLC or SLC –
for design into the broader enterprise storage platform,” said
Brian Shirley, Vice President of Micron’s memory group.

The
company’s new 32Gb MLC Enterprise NAND devices achieve an
impressive 30,000 write cycles. They are also introducing a 16Gb SLC
Enterprise NAND device that achieves 300,000 write cycles. The new
chips also support the ONFI
2.1 synchronous interface, making them easier to integrate into
new products.

Both of these new chips are built on the 34nm
process which IMFT introduced last year, and can be configured into
multi-die, single packages supporting densities of up to 32GB for MLC
NAND and 16GB for SLC NAND.

Micron is now sampling its
Enterprise NAND products with customers and controller manufacturers,
and is expected to enter volume production at the beginning of 2010.